¹³ Gideon said to Him, “O ^[a]my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And ^(A)where are all His miracles ^(B)which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has ^(C)forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”

^22 (A)Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and changed the glory of the ^(B)incorruptible ^(C)God into an image made like ^[a]corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

^24 (D)Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, ^(E)to dishonor their bodies ^(F)among themselves, ²⁵ who exchanged ^(G)the truth of God ^(H)for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to ^(I)vile passions. For even their ^[b]women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. ²⁷ Likewise also the ^[c]men, leaving the natural use of the ^[d]woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things ^(J)which are not fitting; ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, ^[e]sexual immorality, wickedness, ^[f]covetousness, ^[g]maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, ³⁰ backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ^31 [h]undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, ^[i]unforgiving, unmerciful; ³² who, ^(K)knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things ^(L)are deserving of death, not only do the same but also ^(M)approve of those who practice them.

¹⁷ But we will certainly do ^(A)whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the ^(B)queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of ^[a]food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. ¹⁸ But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.”

¹⁹ The women also said, ^(C)“And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?”

The Servant, Israel’s Hope

50 Thus says the Lord:

¹¹ The earth also was corrupt ^(A)before God, and the earth was ^(B)filled with violence. ¹² So God ^(C)looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for ^(D)all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

All Have Sinned^(A)

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that ^(B)they are all under sin.

¹⁰ As it is written:

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever ^(I)the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that ^(J)every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become ^[b]guilty before God.